
From 1788 to 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were sent from the UK to Australia. We no longer do that, but we may start packing them off to Iceland instead.
That’s an idea that CEO Richard Walker has come up with along with his director of rehabilitation, Paul Cowley.
They wrote to prisons minster Lord Timpson, suggesting offenders work at the supermarket (not the nation) in a bid to help with overcrowding and reoffending.
The idea is in its early stages but could involve criminals who face short prison sentences or suspended sentences.
Walker told The Times: ‘We have a prisons crisis, and we have a solution that we think could be really powerful.
‘And look, if people mess up and they don’t turn up for work, then they do go inside.
‘If it all goes well, then that’s your sentence. You don’t go to prison. You don’t lose your home, kids don’t go into care.

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‘And if it doesn’t, and it all goes pear shaped, then it’s a suspended sentence which kicks in.
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‘But it’s an opportunity to get rid of a custodial sentence. And I believe, and the company believes, that that would have some impact on reducing reoffending and our prison population.’
Company bosses say they’ve consulted two former attorneys-general who said the idea is legally feasible.
More than 1,300 ex-offenders have either been employed or given job offers by Iceland over the past three years.
The company has strict rules on which types of offenders can work at its stores and Walker said candidates would have to undergo ‘serious vetting’.
Life of a convict in Australia
Convicts were sent to Australia to work. Their sentences stipulated they would work from sunrise to sunset, Monday to Saturday. This was their punishment but the colonial administration also viewed it as an opportunity for redemption, as Governor Phillip believed that ‘honest sweat’ was the convict’s best chance of improvement.
Convicts lived under very strict rules and any breaking of those regulations could result in punishment such as whippings, the wearing of leg-irons or solitary confinement. Serious crimes could result in sentences to hard-labour prisons such as Port Arthur or Norfolk Island.
By the mid-1830s only six per cent of convicts were locked up. The vast majority worked for the government or free settlers and, with good behaviour, could earn a ticket of leave, conditional pardon or and even an absolute pardon. While under such orders convicts could earn their own living.
The majority of convicts stayed on in Australia after their sentences were served. Once free, they could own land and, under Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1810–21), some were appointed to key positions in the colonial government.
Source: National Museum Australia
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